While the personal religious views may not coincide exactly with your own, the abdication of religion in public life, and the results of that abdication make for interesting reading, as do the prescriptions for changing that. With the current debate about the funding of faith based charities with public money, a timely read, even though written almost 20 years ago.

Having recently renewed my eschatology/End Times jones, I've gotten into the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. I'm also into Left Behind: The Kids, just to see the youthful take on this, and since I'm a kid at heart.

Only gotten to Tribulation Force (#2) so far, though. Need to pony up the money for Nicolae.

"Where Your Treasure Is" by Eugene Peterson is excellent (so far. I'm halfway through), once you get through a boring first chapter. He shows how 11 Psalms can help God's people become unselfish individually, collectively and as an influence on society.

I'm reading "The Early Christians in their Own Words," which is just fantastic. A+++ reading.

On the recreational reading side: I just finished reading "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," by Dave Eggers. It is a memoir. Eggers' parents both died within 5 months of eachother when he was 21, leaving him to raise his 8 year-old brother.

This is most decidedly NOT a Christian book. If the F-word bothers you, stay away. However, I found it wonderful, funny reading with a lot of depth. It's very Gen-Y in it's sensibility, and the man can seriously write. If you like Douglas Coupland ("Generation X") you will probably like Eggers.

I'm also reading "Their Words are Music: Lyricists of the Musical Stage," but I'm guessing that wouldn't interest many people other than me. I just finished the chapter on Cole Porter.

Some combination! I have been getting 95% of fiction at CBD or other Christian Bookstores because of the language in the other books. I just finished a book of fiction that was like that but finished it anyway but not one time would the removal of the swearing have harmed the material. I have read all the left behind series, and some others that I will email/post tomorrow because I can't remember the author etc at the moment. My 'Theology' is devoted at the moment to the book of Psalms, a couple of commentaries, the NKJV Bible (psalms & Isaiah), I just finished a report on Zion & Jerusalem.

Personally, I gave up on "Christian" fiction. I just never found it as well written as most. In addition so much of it is end times in nature.

Have you ever read Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, or Shusaku Endo? All Christians, all award winners, all fine, fine writers. If you like literary fiction.

I would especially recommend "Silence" by Shusaku Endo. It's about two young missionaries who hear that their mentor has apostacized, so they travel to Japan to find him.

I also like Percy's "Lost in the Cosmos," though it's non-fiction (but fun non-fiction!). He basically ruminates on postmodernism, only without using that word, and without giving any clear-cut solutions. My favorite chapter is "Why Writers Drink." It actually answers that question more satisfyingly than anything else I have ever read!

I would also recommend Chaim Potok's novels. He is an Orthodox Jew, and his stories are very satisfying to read, as a Christian. He addresses a lot of issues that we all struggle with, trying to live God-focused lives in 20th (21st) century America.

Currently I have two books in progress. I've spoken of one of them numerous times (okay, yes it is taking a while!), "Christian Apologetics" by Norman Geisler. The I just started last week, "Art is a Way of Knowing" (its an art therapy book).

I just finished Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, which was FANTASTIC. It's actually along the lines of C. S. Lewis in its use of religious imagery and stories, but I didn't know that going in, nor did it take away from the story for me. In fact, the whole series ends up hinging on original sin and whether or not it was a good thing for mankind in the long run. At least that's how I read it. Either way, I can't figure out why it's marketed as juvenile fiction; it's VERY brainy and complex. I loved it.

Snow Crash is also wonderful (Neal Stephenson, who's got a brain the size of a planet). He's got an interesting take on religion (I don't know how I keep ending up reading these books that revolve one way or another around religion; I'm certainly not looking for them...). It's a great SF book.

Just to throw my own .02 in, I'm currently reading "The Tragedy of American Compassion" by Marvin Olasky. Some may recoginize his name as he's an editor for World Magazine. It really provides a good historical background as how faith based intiatives were quite effective and how history can be applied to today's society. I'm anxious to read the other books he's written as they're good ol' common sense.